


I Want You To Stay, You Have To Go

by stargazerdaisy



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: CW 2020, Chenford Week, Day 5, F/M, Secret Relationship, also there are ~implications~, and whoops, katie I hope you see all the little bits for you, now they're not, they were having such a nice morning together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25297504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargazerdaisy/pseuds/stargazerdaisy
Summary: “Good morning,” he murmured.Her smile was soft, still sleepy at the edges, as she rolled over to face him.  It was one of his favorite things to see.  “Good morning to you too,” she said sweetly, pressing a kiss against his jaw.His hands stroked up and down her bare back, sweeping her hair out of the way, brushing his fingers lightly just to make her shiver.  It was intoxicating, being able to touch her and lie with her and just be with her.  There was never enough time to soak it all in properly.  Even on the rare occasion that their days off lined upandthey were able to spend it together, the practical demands of life still demanded attention.Wherein, Lucy and Tim just want to have a quiet morning all alone, and Jackson rudely comes back from his vacation early.  Nobody knows quite what to do and shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Comments: 10
Kudos: 117
Collections: Chenford Week 2020





	I Want You To Stay, You Have To Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firstdegreefangirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstdegreefangirl/gifts).



The pale morning sunshine was slowly lighting up the room. It was later than he usually slept, but it was his day off, and he was in his favorite place in the world. Nothing was going to push him out of bed before it was absolutely necessary, and even then, it might not end well. Settling back down on the pillow, he pulled Lucy closer against him. She hummed in response, not all the way awake, but aware enough to smile slightly and nestle against his arm. So much of his life was focused on running towards or away from something, that lying here, warm and safe, filled him with pure contentment. 

They each dozed in and out for the next little bit, no reason to rush out of their perfect world. Eventually, the room was too bright and they couldn’t shut out the day any longer. As Lucy stretched her back and arms, Tim nuzzled into her hair at the base of her neck. 

“Good morning,” he murmured.

Her smile was soft, still sleepy at the edges, as she rolled over to face him. It was one of his favorite things to see. “Good morning to you too,” she said sweetly, pressing a kiss against his jaw. 

His hands stroked up and down her bare back, sweeping her hair out of the way, brushing his fingers lightly just to make her shiver. It was intoxicating, being able to touch her and lie with her and just be with her. There was never enough time to soak it all in properly. Even on the rare occasion that their days off lined up _and_ they were able to spend it together, the practical demands of life still demanded attention. The audible growl of his stomach emphasized that point.

“We should get up and get some breakfast,” he said.

“Breakfast is overrated,” she grumbled, burying her face in his shoulder. “Let’s just stay here.”

“Is it now?” he said, grinning. “Even my famous sausage and cheese omelet?”

The thought of the dish made Lucy’s mouth water, but the thought of other things Tim could provide, right where they were, was making an equally compelling argument. “What if I give you a good reason to stay here for another 30 minutes and _then_ we have that omelet?”

Oh, she was cheeky. “Thirty minutes, eh?”

Her mouth quirked at the corner. “At least,” she replied. 

“It would have to be a pretty good reason,” he said, pretending he didn’t know exactly what she was talking about, as if her wandering hands weren’t making it perfectly clear. “I mean, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it’s getting late in the morning. Maybe we need to-”

The loud bang of the front door closing cut him off. 

Without realizing it, Tim was already moving to get his gun, preparing to face the intruder. But he was stopped by Lucy clinging to him like a baby koala. 

“He wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow!” she hissed.

His mind raced, pulled in a thousand different directions in the last 47 seconds. “What? Who?” he whispered.

“Jackson!” she exclaimed, trying to rein in her panic. “He wasn’t supposed to be back from visiting his brother until Thursday. What the **hell** is he doing here now?!”

“Oh, it’s just West?” Tim asked, relaxing back onto the bed now that there was no threat. “What’s the problem then?”

She stared at him like he had dribbled something on his shirt. “He doesn’t know about you.” 

“I think he knows about me, Boot. We’ve been working together for two years now. We’ve met.” His expression was impassive, just shy of disbelief. 

“Shut up.” she pushed his chest, smiling even as her forehead wrinkled in consternation. “Yes, he knows you, Officer Bradford. But he doesn’t know about _you_ , my sleeping-over-boyfriend, Tim.”

“Sleeping-over-boyfriend? What are you, 15?” His smirk was off the charts cocky. 

“Literally not the moment,” she deadpanned. “He can’t find you here. I’m not ready for people to know.”

Jackson’s voice broke through their whispered conversation. “Hey Lucy! You want to get brunch?”

Tim dropped his voice lower. “How does he know you’re home?”

“Where else would I be?” Lucy retorted.

“Maybe out at your _boyfriend’s_ house?” he teased.

Her jaw clenched. “Shut. Up.”

“Lucy?” Jackson called, knocking on the door. “Come on, girl, time to wake up. Do I need to come dump a bucket of water on you again?”

Tim shot her a questioning look, like he wanted to know all about that story. She held up a finger to cut him off. “Hey Jackson, brunch sounds good. Give me a few minutes to clean up a bit, okay?”

“Sure thing,” he agreed. “I’ll just be in my room unpacking.”

Hearing Jackson moving away, Lucy let out a sigh of relief.

“You have to go,” she said, looking around frantically. “The fire escape.”

“The fire escape?!” Indignation read across his face.

“Yes, and quickly,” Lucy insisted. “You can’t get past him out the front door. Now quick, get dressed.”

Quick as a flash, Lucy jumped out of the bed and started flinging any item of clothing she could find at him. 

More slowly, Tim climbed out as well, trying to reason with her. “Lucy, wait, I need-”

“Shhhh!!! Here!” she said, throwing his shirt at his face. 

Sensing his arguments were going to fall on deaf ears, Tim pulled the shirt over his head and picked up the jeans that landed at his feet. His socks were nowhere to be seen, but at least his wallet and keys were in his jeans. (They hadn’t exactly lingered out in the living area by the time he made it over after his late shift.) “At least let me get my shoes, OW!” he yelped when the aforementioned boots crashed into his shin. 

“Everything okay in there, Lucy?" Jackson yelled from the bathroom, where he was putting away his toiletries. "It sounds like you’re wrestling a panther.”

Tim tried hard not to snicker, chest puffing out with pride. 

Lucy just glared at him. “I’m fine,” she called through the door. “Just tripped over something on the floor. It’s a bit of a mess in here.”

Finally Tim had wriggled into his pants, so she shoved his shoes in his hands, and opened the window. Her eyes pointed out to the platform. It was impossible to control his eyeroll as he gave up and climbed out. 

There was remorse on her face, even while undercut by tension. “I’m sorry, I really am. I love you. I’ll call you later.” 

For all that had happened in the last three minutes, this had truly thrown Tim. “WAIT. What did you just say?” 

Lucy didn’t even hear his question. She gave him a quick kiss and shut the window behind him.

For a moment, Tim stood there on the metal platform, trying to figure out a) how the hell he ended up there and b) how he was possibly going to get down without Jackson seeing him. The fire escape led straight across their living room, with the ladder down over by Jackson’s room. But the living room windows were pretty high on the wall, so he hoped he could creep by, staying low and out of sight. Hopefully, no neighbors saw him up there and called the cops. He was pretty certain that would let all the cats out of all the bags if he had to explain to his fellow officers why he was hanging out outside Lucy’s bedroom window. But first, he needed shoes. Walking across and climbing down a metal grate was unpalatable enough, but doing so in bare feet seemed like a recipe for disaster. He sat down to pull on his boots and lace them up. The metal grate under him bit into his backside though. As he shifted, the horrifying realization dawned on him. In his haste to leave, he’d pulled his jeans straight on. His boxers were still in Lucy’s room. It took a minute to weigh out whether trying to go back in and get them was worth it, but decided it would just be easier to get them from Lucy later. After all, he was just going to head straight home.

Trying to keep quiet, he crept across the platform, staying low to keep out of sight, but he could hear the roommates chatting in the living room. Hearing Lucy trying to deflect Jackson’s questions about what she’d been up to the night before was hilarious. She had that slightly nervous wobble in her voice that appeared when she was trying to hide something. But thus far the questions about his trip and his brother seemed to be working. 

Inside, Jackson spotted something behind the chair. “Hey, what’s this?”

“Huh? What’s what?” Lucy turned to see where he was looking, suddenly recognizing exactly the small black fabric was.

With a flourish, Jackson picked them up off the floor. “Lucinda Muriel Chen, whose boxers are these?”

“No one’s!” she squeaked. "And that's not my name."

His grin widened, knowing there had to be a juicy story here. Lucy hadn’t brought home a guy since she dated Emmett a year ago, and he wasn’t even sure if she’d gone on a date in the last six months. “They’re obviously someone’s, they wouldn’t fit you. Now, give me all the dirt.”

Feigning ignorance, Lucy avoided eye contact. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said haughtily. 

Just at that moment, Tim slipped and fell against the fire escape, making a huge noise.

Reaching to his back, where he kept his off-duty weapon, Jackson rushed to the window, only to come face to face with Officer Bradford. “What the hell?” he exclaimed, thoroughly confused.

He looked from Tim to Lucy to Tim to Lucy, trying desperately to put the pieces together. Tim’s jaw was on the ground and Lucy was so bright red, she could pass for a tomato. It was obvious the moment it clicked in Jackson’s head and realized just whose underwear he was holding. He quickly started babbling, “Oh no, sir, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean. These are yours, of course you know they’re yours. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have. Here, why don’t you come in?”

Swiftly he opened the window and Tim crawled inside, as gracefully as possible, which is to say, not very. Silence stretched out as everyone wished an earthquake would strike and swallow them whole. 

Jackson meekly handed the offending garment to Tim. “Um, here, sir.”

“Thanks, West,” Tim said, snatching the boxers and trying to stay gruff, the way he usually did with Jackson. But the hilarity of the moment was setting in and he found himself fighting off a smile. The corners of Jackson’s mouth started to twitch as well. But Lucy was still hidden behind her hands. 

“So, you and Lucy,” Jackson said, suggestively.

Tim smiled proudly. “Guilty as charged.”

The tension breaking, Jackson found himself strangely at ease with his superior officer. “I feel like I should give you the whole ‘What are your intentions’ speech,” he said, showing Tim just how protective over Lucy the younger man felt. 

It made Tim happy to know Lucy had people like West looking out for her, but didn’t exactly welcome the questioning of his own character. He raised a challenging eyebrow.

Jackson immediately wilted. “Of course not. I’m sure they’re nothing short of honorable...sir,” he said, reverting to his normal respectful deference. 

Lucy finally turned to Jackson and spoke. “Okay, now you know. Pleeeease don’t tell anyone,” she pleaded.

“Not even Angela?” he asked, partly because he was dying to tell his former TO about this _development_ and find out who was finally going to collect on the pool. 

“Especially not Angela,” Tim said firmly. “She will never shut up about it.”

Jackson smothered a smile, knowing that is exactly what would happen. “I have to ask, how long?”

The couple looked to each other, trying to decide how much to explain. “About four months,” said Lucy.

“And this-” he gestured between them, “-is what? Just casual? Friends with benefits? Serious boyfriend/girlfriend?”’

“Not friends with benefits,” Lucy said, wrinkling her nose. “It’s…” She looked to Tim for help, afraid to categorize their relationship more deeply than he thought it was.

“It’s serious.” Tim confirmed, causing the knot in Lucy’s stomach to loosen. 

“Okay then.” Jackson was satisfied. “Buuuuuut I think I’m gonna take a raincheck on brunch. Or maybe I’ll see if Nolan wants to go. Or Harper. Or maybe Grey...”

Without waiting for an answer, Jackson scurried out of the apartment, leaving them alone as suddenly as he had crashed their idyllic morning. 

The whiplash of the last 10 minutes finally started to settle and Lucy looked at Tim with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement. He, however, had a sly smile growing across his face. Crossing his arms across his chest and rocking back on his heels, reminding her of his days as her TO, he fixed her with a look. 

“Hey Lucy,” he grinned. “What was it that you said earlier?”

“I said a lot of things earlier,” she said confused. “Most of them centered around ‘Go’ and ‘Don’t get caught’, both of which you failed at spectacularly, I might add.”

“No,” he said patiently, drawing closer. “What you said right before you closed the window. That was new.”

Lucy chewed her lip a moment, thinking back on the exchange. “I said I was sorry, I would call you later, and…OH.” Recognition dawned in her eyes. 

His smile turned soft, eyes all warm and adoring, as he wrapped her up in his arms. “I love you too, Lucy.”


End file.
